Tartaglio was a corporate travel consultant, office manager, and accounting assistant for a travel agency in Shelton from 2008 to 2011, and according to documents and statements made in court, she embezzled from her employer by drafting refund checks from the agency to clients who were not due any refunds, forging the clients' signatures, endorsing the checks and then depositing them into her personal bank account.

Where a commission was due to the travel agency, Tartaglio entered all or part of the commission as a credit payable to a random client or a fictitious name and then wrote a check for the credit amount to that name. She then endorsed each check and deposited it into her bank account, said Thomas Carson, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Deidre Daly.

Tartaglio also created checks payable to vendors or suppliers for operating expenses, changed the payee on a check to a fictitious name created by her, endorsed and then deposited the checks in her account.

She is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on September 3, when she faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.